Engstler And Poulsen Reunite For Indie Title Shot

Leading independent World Touring Car Championship drivers Franz Engstler and Kristian Poulsen will reunite for the 2011 season.

The pair were previously teammates at Franz's Engstler Motorsport squad in 2009, before Dane Poulsen split from the team to run his own campaign for 2010 through his Poulsen Motorsport team.

After a successful season for both BMW drivers, which saw Engstler and Poulsen finish second and third respectively in the Independents' Trophy standings, Poulsen will return to the Engstler setup to help the team's fight for the privateer honours.

Both drivers will be at the wheel of BMW 320 TC cars, fitted with the new 1.6 litre engine developed by BMW Motorsport. They are the second and third drivers to commit to running the new powerplant, after Tom Coronel announced his switch to ROAL Motorsport. The cars will be run by Liqui Moly Team Engstler in cooperation with Poulsen Motorsport.

Engstler Motorsport team manager Kurt Treml said: “We are happy to re-establish the cooperation with Kristian and his team. We are confident that this will give us a good chance to successfully fight for the independent title once again.”

Engstler and Poulsen have already started their 2011 season together, racing in the Dubai 24 Hour race last weekend at the wheel of a BMW Z4 run by Engstler Motorsport. They were heavily delayed by a technical problem while running in fourth position.

Engstler, along with fellow BMW teams ROAL and Proteam, are due to test at Italy's Vallelunga Circuit at the beginning of February. Chevrolet, SUNRED and Polestar will test at Barcelona on January 20-21.